“Can you pull it out?”
“Yes. Behemoth, do it.”
The behemoth shoved its nose into the ground—eventually at least half of its body was underground as it grabbed on to something and pulled it out.
Ew.
I guess it was like the part of a sweet potato that’s attached to the vine turning into the upper body of a high-ranking demon.
“…Inferno.”
I faced the high-ranking demon that was in the air and used one of the strongest offensive spells I had at my disposal.
“Acceleration—skip the procedures, emergency bombardment!”
Lulu pulled out a disposable Cannon of Acceleration, used the ground as a stabilizer, and launched the attack.
“…Here!”
The Cannon of Acceleration fired without even using any Space Magic for stabilization and had its center of gravity pulled wildly off-balance. Even so, Lulu pulled the trigger at the perfect moment, piercing the high-ranking demon’s core with the accelerated shot. The high-ranking demon took serious damage before falling from the sky—and Ms. Liza would never miss such a perfect opportunity.
“Nana!”
“Yes, Liza.”
Urged on by Liza, Nana soared through the air using “Skywalking.” The high-ranking demon fired beam shots like a pulse laser, but Nana effortlessly deflected them using her magic-cutting technique and moved into the preparatory stance for her special attack.
“‘Blade of Zero: Blast Fort,’ I declare.”
Nana’s special attack destroyed the high-ranking demon’s defenses.
“‘Blade of One: Shadow Binding’—”
The shadows stretching from the ground bound the high-ranking demon in a web, and Tama, emerging from the shadows, made the Holy Sword in her hands shine blue.
“…‘Vorpal Shadow Bite’?”
Tama’s finishing move tore the bark of the high-ranking demon to shreds, and the shadow blades that followed widened the wounds. It seemed that, having learned from the last time, the shadows had taken on a wedge-like form to interfere with the demon’s regeneration.
“‘Blade of Two: One-Stroke Kill—Vanquish Slice,’ sir!”
Pochi’s enlarged blade further widened the wounds left by Tama on the high-ranking demon.
“‘Blade of Three: Draco Buster’!”
Liza dove into the wound created by Pochi and advanced deep into the core with her finishing move, which transformed her spear into a dragon lance.
“‘Absolute Technique: Mana Blade Buster.’”
At the same time as Liza’s voice, a blue light leaked from within the high-ranking demon, and finally, it exploded from the inside. The fragments vanished into a black mist.
“It looks like we defeated it.”
My friends all waved their hands as they returned. At first, we had the Divine Beast Fenrir to help us, but it was quite a big achievement that we were able to defeat the high-ranking demon all by ourselves.
“Don’t let up! That demon’s stubborn!”
The Divine Beast trembled as he got back on his feet and warned us.
“Mia, is it still here?”
“No… Wait.”
Mia frantically looked around. The behemoth began to look around, too, before suddenly stopping, facing in one direction.
“There.”
A smaller version of the bark demon came charging toward us. It didn’t have a big cannon this time.
In that case, Nana can—
The behemoth looked the other way.
“Over there.”
I could see a light in the forest. The behemoth began charging in that direction, shielding Mia with its body against the extremely thick beam of light unleashed from the forest of trees.
“Thank you.”
Mia offered her thanks to the behemoth as it scattered into spirit power.
“Falanx, sir!”
“Sillyyyy.”
Pochi defended against the dispersive beam, Tama dodged the high-ranking demon’s attack as Nana deflected regular attacks with her large shield, and Liza whittled down its stamina with her dragon lance.
It was no good. We were losing time focusing on one of them. The other was charging up to attack us. It was impossible for us to one-shot it with our abilities…unless!
“Move away on my signal.”
I used “Short-Range Teleportation” to move closer to Liza and the others.
“Now! …Disintegrate!”
“‘Shadow Binding’?”
Tama’s ninjutsu constricted the high-ranking demon, rendering it immobile, while I unleashed Space Magic toward its core. With a sound like a deep suction, the high-ranking demon was gouged out, exposing its crimson-black core.
“Hi-ya, sir!”
“‘Draco Buster’!”
Pochi’s attack was blocked by the high-ranking demon’s arm, but in the moment it was distracted by Pochi, Liza’s finishing move was unleashed, piercing through the magic core and shattering it. The high-ranking demon’s body dissipated into a black mist. I figured it was a lot weaker, as we had destroyed the main body.
“It’s here.”
Tama warned us around the same time as I teleported beside everyone. The Divine Beast was weaving through the forest, closing in on the high-ranking demon, but I didn’t think it would make it in time for the other attack.
Teleport.
Huh, it failed? Damn, I’m out of mana.
“Phalanx!”
“Faranx, sir!”
Lulu cast Phalanx, but Pochi was also out of mana, and her Phalanx didn’t go off—one Phalanx would do nothing, though.
“Leave it to me, I declare.”
Nana stood in front of everyone.
“Don’t push yourself—”
“I’m not pushing myself, I emphasize.”
Nana looked at me and smiled.
No, Nana. Don’t sacrifice yourself—
“…Castle, I declare.”
With Nana’s command word, her golden armor began to change shape. Crimson and red lights flashed like a burst.
Huh?
A series of flapping sounds created a barrier, forming a dome-shaped layered shield that was distinct from a fortress but even more resilient. There was a burst of beams of light. Phalanx disappeared in an instant, but the Castle defensive layers withheld the blast, without so much as a small shiver.
“…Amazing. You should have used something like that earlier.”
“Master had yet to try it in battle, so he ordered me not to use it yet, I confess.”
I see. That’s why she didn’t use it until now.
The high-ranking demon that had fired the shot was taken down by the Divine Beast in a surprise attack. As I thought, it was weak without the main host.
“But I feel like I’ve seen that somewhere before.”
“Isn’t it similar to Lalakie’s Heavenslight Protection?”
“Ah, you’re right, it is similar.”
The crimson and red lights from before looked similar to the Holy Lights of the gods, but I wondered if there was any connection?
“Mew! Mew, mew!”
“Oh wowowow, Mr. Egg is flying around again, sir.”
Tama panicked as Pochi watched the egg flying around her frantically.
“Looks like it’s not over just yet.”
“One, two, three—looks like there’s thirteen all together.”
Liza spoke in a serious tone, as Lulu counted the number of remaining high-level demons that had appeared in the forest. Well, it made sense. Final bosses were known for being tough to beat—so I guessed that was what was happening here.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Really? Thirteen of them…”
…Keeping the best till last, I guess. Mia and I didn’t have enough mana to fight. Lulu had also used Phalanx, so she didn’t have enough mana to cast Acceleration. Nana, who had just used a new spell, naturally had no mana, nor did Ms. Liza. The Divine Beast who defeated the main host was also completely out of strength.
“Light.”
Ugh.
Following Mia’s pointed finger, an eerie light illuminated the upper body of the high-ranking demon from below, visible through the trees. It was surely the preparatory glow for the demon’s next bombardment.
“If all of them launch an attack, there is no guarantee we can defend against it, I declare.”
“I know!”
We were in so much of a pinch, I kind of responded in a mean tone. Just using Teleportation to retreat took a full sixty seconds to recover my magic power. I wanted to send a help call to my master, but the distance was too great, and I was too shaken to get the signal through properly. Everyone looked at me with serious expressions. Wait—Tama? Only Tama was staring at nothing, like a house cat following something invisible in the air.
“What should we do, sir?”
“No need to worry?”
“I want Tama to take this seriously, sir! Pochi is in a very prickly, prickly situation, sir!”
“Don’t worry, be happy?”
With a relaxed expression, Tama plopped down and sat.
I wonder if she’s given up? No, that can’t be it.
“Look?”
Tama pointed to the sky.
“Ah! Sir!”
Pochi looked up at the sky, too, and smiled. I eventually looked up, too.
It’s a meteor shower.
No, it wasn’t. It was Master’s magic. Countless lights, like a sky full of stars, rained down, obliterating the thirteen high-ranking demons in an instant—along with the vast area of the forest. There was only one person capable of something like that.
“Hello. Looks like I made it just in time.”
“Master!”
“Master, sir!”
We all welcomed and embraced our Master as he descended from the heavens.
✦ ✦ ✦
